Well, let’s dive into the murky waters of AI malpractice with a splash of Second Amendment spice, shall we? Radio persona Mark Walters, dubbed “the loudest voice in America fighting for gun rights,” and darling of the Armed America Radio, is gunning for OpenAI. Yes, that’s right, not content with just firing salvos on airwaves, Walters is now pointing his sights at the AI giant, accusing it of defamation via its chatterbox child, ChatGPT.
The crux of the legal cannonade? False and malicious allegations hurled by the AI chatbot, including, but not limited to, fictitious tenure as the chief financial officer and treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). Add to this a sprinkling of trumped-up embezzlement accusations and we’ve got ourselves a truly wild AI ride.
Enter, stage right, journalist Fred Riehl, the detector of this AI misfire. While innocently asking ChatGPT to summarise a legal document that was as dry as your favourite martini, ChatGPT chose to whip up an entirely new storyline, one where Walters emerged as the villain in an embezzlement drama, with the SAF as his hapless victim. In reality, Walters was never in the frame, let alone implicated in the original suit, which was actually about Washington’s attorney general, Robert Ferguson, allegedly misusing legal processes for personal vendettas.
Even when pressed for factual evidence by Riehl, ChatGPT held its ill-informed ground, demonstrating a level of obstinacy that could rival any hard-headed political pundit.
And here we are, ladies and gents, witnessing what might be the first ever lawsuit sparked by an AI’s so-called ‘hallucinations’, where the fabricated turns factual and the virtual becomes libellous. The promised monetary damages remain undisclosed, but one thing is crystal clear – OpenAI might want to consider a muzzle for its gabbing progeny. It seems that in this new world of AI, fact-checking isn’t just a good idea, it’s a legal necessity. Who’d have thunk it?
